Wednesday, December 26, 2007

You should knowI’m working my way through AFI’s Top 100 movies. This one currently ranks 25 (up from #34 in 1997) – not to mention #2 most inspiring, #17 best score, and #1 hero for Atticus Finch.

Also, this is my 100th post. Whoo-hoo!

So?

Even now, Atticus Finch comes across as a fairly nontraditional parent; I can only imagine how he would have seemed when the move first came out – or, for that matter, when the book was first published. On that note, I really need to read the book, don’t I?

If you’re not familiar with it, the story is about a single father and his family. The kids are intrigued by their secretive neighbor; the father is a lawyer defending an African-American man in rather racist criminal trial. The movie follows the summer and autumn during which these events occur.

I do have a question: Scout is telling the story, right? So when she says that her brother Jem never told anyone about something that happened to him, that she did not witness, how does she know it to tell it in this story?

Other than that nagging issue, the movie was quite enjoyable. Was it deserving of so many accolades? Possibly; it’s hard to tell the impact of a film so many decades later (viewers who see The Matrix for the first time are already growing unimpressed with the special effects, for instance, and it’s only eight years later).

RatingSee it……if only so that you can say you did. Personally, I enjoyed the film, but even if it doesn’t sound like your thing, there’s a lot to be said for having a working familiarity with the canon of your culture.